Molly Ryan Kills Enemy at the CHAC Gallery Feb. 8, 2017. Molly is one of the organizers of Denver’s Sing Our Rivers Red March February 14th, 2017 on the global Murdered and Missing Indigenous Woman Awareness Day. The gallery is hosting an exhibit called Sing Our River Red by Navajo/Chicana artist Nanibah Chacon, which includes letters and earrings from family or those who were murdered and or are currently missing.

A red river of fabric will wash down the 16th Street Mall on Tuesday, carried by indigenous and non-native people to honor the missing and murdered Native women who have not found justice.

The march Sing Our Rivers Red shares the name with a complementary exhibit of the same name at the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council gallery on Sante Fe Drive, suggesting that arts organizations may become more active in the next couple of years.

“We want to raise awareness, and we also want to honor the missing and murdered indigenous women because no one knows about it,” organizer and domestic violence survivor Molly Ryan Kills Enemy said.

One in three Native women report having been raped, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Indigenous women are 2.5 times more likely to experience sexual assault compared to women of other races. Nearly half of all Native women have been raped, beaten or stalked by an intimate partner, according to the exhibit. On some reservations, women have been killed at rates 10 times the national average.

In Canada, 1,181 Native women and girls have been reported missing or have been killed since 1980, according to the exhibit. The U.S. does not have comprehensive data.

Andy Cross, The Denver Post

Part of an exhibit entitled Sing Our Rivers Red at the CHAC Gallery by Navajo/Chicana artist Nanibah Chacon February 08, 2017. The exhibit is associated with Denver’s Sing Our Rivers Red March February 14th, 2017 held on the global Murdered and Missing Indigenous Woman Awareness Day and includes letters and earrings from family or those who were murdered or missing.

To honor those women, Native artist Nani Chacon designed Sing Our Rivers Red — Earring Installation. The installation features 1,181 single earrings of different sizes, colors, shapes and materials submitted by people in honor of the women. A red string runs up and down the earrings. On the other wall, a clothing line holds letters from family and friends of missing and murdered women.

“We each have a voice and we can use that voice to speak up and out about injustices against indigenous women,” reads a letter by Danielle Rucero printed on a plaque next to the earrings. “With this voice, we can begin to sing for our healing and start to move toward change.”

Ryan Kills Enemy said her tribe, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, was historically matriarchal as women spoke for their families. But through colonialization and genocide, she said their voices were stolen. This march and the exhibit is a chance for her to speak.

“People see this whole situation as a Native thing with the water. They don’t understand, or maybe they don’t want to know,” she said. “They’re raping the earth, and with these man camps they’re bringing in, the men rape the women.”

The two initially wanted to somehow create a red river down 16th Street with water but couldn’t find an environmentally friendly way. Instead, they’re creating a river of red using red fabric. The march will take off from the Capitol at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, head down the 16th Street Mall and return to the Capitol.

Both women also hosted a march from the Four Winds American Indian Council headquarters to the exhibit when it opened on First Friday. Ryan Kills Enemy said she sat in the exhibit for up to 1½ hours, explaining the epidemic to people who had never heard of the issues.

These are just some of multiple actions the women and others have been planning recently, all somehow tied to DAPL.

“All you can do at this point is planting the seeds,” Lopez said. “If you do that little persistently, consistently, that’s what’s going to work.”

Ryan Kills Enemy said incorporating the exhibit and the rolls of cloth in their activism is important because “there’s got to be beauty out of this fight.”

Andy Cross, The Denver Post

Part of an exhibit entitled Sing Our Rivers Red at the CHAC Gallery by Navajo/Chicana artist Nanibah Chacon February 08, 2017. The exhibit is associated with Denver’s Sing Our Rivers Red March February 14th, 2017 held on the global Murdered and Missing Indigenous Woman Awareness Day and includes letters and earrings from family or those who were murdered or missing.

CHAC executive director Crystal O’Brien said the exhibit was the most sacred that has been hosted at the gallery. She said it raised awareness of an issue that even she wasn’t aware of until Ryans Kills Enemy approached her.

She said the exhibit and march also gave the gallery an opportunity to become more active in social and political issues, a step needed in the next couple of years.

“With arts maybe taking a back seat (under the current administration), I think that as arts organizations, we have to take a step forward. Art is such a beautiful thing, and it helps people in so many ways,” O’Brien said. “Through things like this, we just have to rise up and say we’re here, we’re relevant, art is important.”